⁍ The Republican-controlled U.S. Senate handed President Donald Trump a major pre-election political victory.

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⁍ The Senate voted 52-48, with Democrats unified in opposing Barrett’s confirmation.

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⁍ Barrett will succeed liberal Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who died last month.

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⁍ No Supreme Court justice had ever been confirmed so close to a presidential election.

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– Amy Barrett is now a member of the Supreme Court. The Senate on Monday voted 52-48 to confirm the 48-year-old to replace the late Ruth Bader Ginsburg, setting the stage for a ceremony at the White House later Monday in which she will be sworn in, Reuters reports. Justice Clarence Thomas will administer one of the two oaths of office that justices have to take, according to a White House official. Chief Justice John Roberts will administer the separate judicial oath at the court on Tuesday. President Trump’s first Supreme Court nominee, Neil Gorsuch, was confirmed in 2017. Barrett, a conservative federal appeals court judge, is Trump’s third Supreme Court nominee. She will replace liberal Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who died last month. Barrett’s confirmation shifts the Supreme Court further to the right, which could pave the way to conservative rulings curbing abortion rights, expanding gun rights, and limiting voting rights, among other things. Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said the Republican majority was ‘lighting its credibility on fire’ by proceeding with the vote so close to the election after blocking Democratic President Obama’s election-year nominee in 2016. “The truth is this nomination is part of a decades-long effort to tilt the judiciary to the far right,” he said. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell defended Barrett’s nomination. ‘We don’t have any doubt, do we, that if the shoe was on the other foot, they’d be confirming,’ McConnell said. ‘You can’t win them all, and elections have consequences.’